U.S. Pat. No. 6,273,771, which is incorporated by reference herein, discloses a control system for a marine vessel that incorporates a marine propulsion system that can be attached to a marine vessel and connected in signal communication with a serial communication bus and a controller. A plurality of input devices and output devices are also connected in signal communication with the communication bus and a bus access manager, such as a CAN Kingdom network, is connected in signal communication with the controller to regulate the incorporation of additional devices to the plurality of devices in signal communication with the bus whereby the controller is connected in signal communication with each of the plurality of devices on the communication bus. The input and output devices can each transmit messages to the serial communication bus for receipt by other devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,267,068, which is incorporated by reference herein, discloses a marine vessel that is maneuvered by independently rotating first and second marine propulsion devices about their respective steering axes in response to commands received from a manually operable control device, such as a joystick. The marine propulsion devices are aligned with their thrust vectors intersecting at a point on a centerline of the marine vessel and, when no rotational movement is commanded, at the center of gravity of the marine vessel. Internal combustion engines are provided to drive the marine propulsion devices. The steering axes of the two marine propulsion devices are generally vertical and parallel to each other. The two steering axes extend through a bottom surface of the hull of the marine vessel.
Unpublished U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/830,988, filed Aug. 20, 2015, which is incorporated by reference herein, discloses a joystick device for controlling propulsion and steering of a marine vessel having a handle configured to be moveable by an operator to provide propulsion and steering control commands for a marine vessel, and a housing at the base of the handle such that the handle extends out of the housing. The joystick device also has an adjustable display thereon that adjusts based on at least one of a control mode and a movement of the handle.